Engineered Orange Ectopically Expressing the Arabidopsis beta-Caryophyllene Synthase Is Not Attractive to Diaphorina citri, the Vector of the Bacterial Pathogen Associated to Huanglongbing

Author(s):Show less -

Alquezar, Berta ^{[1, 2]} ; Volpe, Haroldo Xavier Linhares ^[1] ; Magnani, Rodrigo Facchini ^{[1, 3]} ; de Miranda, Marcelo Pedreira ^[1] ; Santos, Mateus Almeida ^{[4, 1]} ; Marques, Viviani Vieira ^[1] ; de Almeida, Marcia Rodrigues ^[1] ; Wulff, Nelson Arno ^{[4, 1]} ; Ting, Hieng-Ming ^[5] ; de Vries, Michel ^[6] ; Schuurink, Robert ^[6] ; Bouwmeester, Harro ^[6] ; Pena, Leandro ^{[1, 2]}

Affiliation

^[1] Fundo Def Citricultura Fundecitrus, Lab Biotecnol Vegetal Pesquisa & Desenvolvimento, Araraquara, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Politecn Valencia UPV, Inst Biol Mol & Celular Plantas IBMCP, Consejo Super Invest Cient CSIC, Valencia - Spain

^[3] Univ Fed Sao Carlos UFSCar, Dept Chem, Sao Carlos - Brazil

^[4] Sao Paulo State Univ UNESP, Inst Chem, Araraquara, SP - Brazil

^[5] Natl Taiwan Univ, Inst Plant Biol, Taipei - Taiwan

^[6] Univ Amsterdam, Swammerdam Inst Life Sci, Green Life Sci Cluster, Amsterdam - Netherlands

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE; v. 12, MAR 2 2021.
• Web of Science Citations: 3

Abstract

Huanglongbing (HLB) is a destructive disease, associated with psyllid-transmitted phloem-restricted pathogenic bacteria, which is seriously endangering citriculture worldwide. It affects all citrus species and cultivars regardless of the rootstock used, and despite intensive research in the last decades, there is no effective cure to control either the bacterial species (Candidatus Liberibacter spp.) or their insect vectors (Diaphorina citri and Trioza erytreae). Currently, the best attempts to manage HLB are based on three approaches: (i) reducing the psyllid population by intensive insecticide treatments; (ii) reducing inoculum sources by removing infected trees, and (iii) using nursery-certified healthy plants for replanting. The economic losses caused by HLB (decreased fruit quality, reduced yield, and tree destruction) and the huge environmental costs of disease management seriously threaten the sustainability of the citrus industry in affected regions. Here, we have generated genetically modified sweet orange lines to constitutively emit (E)-beta-caryophyllene, a sesquiterpene repellent to D. citri, the main HLB psyllid vector. We demonstrate that this alteration in volatile emission affects behavioral responses of the psyllid in olfactometric and no-choice assays, making them repellent/less attractant to the HLB vector, opening a new alternative for possible HLB control in the field. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 15/07011-3 - Biotechnological approaches to the control of citrus huanglongbing using transgenic plants
• Grantee: Leandro Antonio Peña Garcia
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants